Intolerance is the lack of willingness to accept other people´s points of view, beliefs or practices due the contrast with one's own beliefs. We all are a bit intolerant in different levels, but when this refusal to tolerate the other´s beliefs is supported in religious grounds, the problem takes a new dimension.
"Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble". -Joseph Campbell
In recent dates, latin actor based in the US Eduardo Verastegui, started a campaign supporting California's Proposition 8, which would amend California’s constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman and overturn the judicial activist decision approving homosexual "marriage" in the state. Verastegui has also participated in advertisements in favor of California's Proposition 4, which would require parental consent for abortions for minors.
Eduardo has openly admitted his recent conversion to Christianity, and ever since has stood up for the most conservative choices, speaking up whenever possible in favor of christian dogmas, such as celibacy, which he admits to believe in and practice. And this is probably why, blinded by his mystical standpoint, he decides to support politics that limit our progress as a society and push back the fight for equal rights that thousands of people have fought for over the last decades, grounded on his religious interpretation of good and evil.
Before you get confident in your beliefs, maybe you should do some research.
There is a reason why a number of countries worldwide contain provisions within their constitutions expressly forbidding the state from engaging in acts of religious intolerance. Religion must remain apart from the government, and the proof for this can be found throughout history, in every period in which the different churches have been in command. Theologians are people who interpret the vocabulary of scripture as if it were referring to supernatural facts.
Allowing same sex partners to legalize their union as a right that should be common to all civilized human beings is not a threat to the heterosexual marriage institution as we know it and it should´t be interpreted as such.
Preventing the legalization of abortion won´t stop it´s practice, it won´t stop abusers and it won´t stop the irresponsible hormonal teens that get unwillingly pregnant every day. It will only endure its clandestine nature.
I can see where Eduardo is coming from, but fearing change and resisting social evolution is not the way. The social core that is the family must be nourished and protected from within ourselves, encouraged with the example. Children must be protected by speaking the truth, giving them all the information needed, paying attention to their needs, knowing their fears, talking to them, getting to know them, share with them, respect their choices and support their passions, showing them how to protect themselves, helping them develop a strong self esteem.
Social challenges are solved through love and compassion, not with hatred and intolerance. Live and let live.
No comments:
Post a Comment